LUSAKA, Zambia, Feb 17, 2012 (Dow Jones) -- Zambia's mining industry is prepared for any possible effects of an outage at a key hydro power plant that will begin this weekend, a senior official has said.

Zambia Electricity Supply Corp., known as Zesco, the country's utility, plans to shut a 165-megawatt generator at Kariba North Bank for 14 days to allow for maintenance.

However, Copperbelt Electricity Corp., which supplies power to mining companies, has been placed on alert to avoid surges that may affect copper production, its chief executive officer, Neil Croucher, said.

"We have asked all mining companies on the copper belt to be on alert," he told Dow Jones Newswires. "We have advised Zesco to always inform us of the intended times of the outages so that we cutback on power consumptions and avoid affecting machinery and equipment."

Zesco's director of corporate affairs said that the company was mindful of the effects intermittent interruptions may cause.

"We have done everything possible to ensure that the load shedding is done systematically and ensure everybody isn't inconvenienced." Bestty Phiri said.

Zambia's mining sector consumes 40% of the 1,400 megawatts that Zesco generates daily. Zambia is Africa's top copper producer.